Ali Green reaches women’s Met match-play final

Former University of Cincinnati golfer Alex Carl and Ashland University’s Ali Green won Wednesday afternoon semifinal matches and meet in today’s 8:45 a.m. match-play final of the 98th Metropolitan Women’s Amateur Championship at Losantiville Country Club.

Ali Green, while at Lakota West. File photo.

The winner earns the right to be called the city’s top amateur golfer for one year. Carl, a 2 and 1 semifinal winner over red-hot stroke-play medalist Emily Stipanovich, and a 4 and 2 winner over Allie Lawwill in the morning quarterfinals, likes the sound of it.

“I haven’t won a tournament in a long time,” said Carl, who went winless while becoming an all-Big East golfer during her UC career under coach Janet Carl, her mother. “The last time I won was senior year in high school in 2008 at the regionals, so it’s about time.”

Green, formerly of Lakota West, won 4 and 3 in the semis over 16-year-old St. Ursula Academy junior-to-be Carolyn Markley after beating Deanna Mychalishyn 5 and 4 in the quarters. Markley defeated two college players before being eliminated.

Carl, a Notre Dame Academy graduate playing in her third Women’s Met, won nearly a dozen events in high school. “But nothing since then,” she said. “To win this, I just have to keep playing the way I’m playing and hopefully make some putts.”

Stipanovich, a former Xavier University golfer, needed just 24 holes while winning her first two matches, but Carl posed a tougher challenge.

“I would say I’m a scrappy player, and I do put myself in some interesting situations,” said Carl. She dropped a birdie putt on 16 against Stipanovich and made a putt for par on 17 to clinch. “The best thing about match play is, if you have a bad shot, it’s just one hole.”

Carl’s semifinal win represented a Women’s Met breakthrough after she lost twice previously in the semis. “I lost on the 19th hole at Clovernook and lost at Miami View, 1-up,” she said. “So it’s pretty nice to make the final.”

It’s Green’s second Women’s Met and first Met final.

“I don’t have a ton of experience with match play, but it’s more fun than stroke play,” Green said. “You just have to play solid and putt well, and not worry about what the other person is doing. I’m going to focus on what I’m doing and hopefully I’ll win.”